I was watching "24" the other night -- Ok, how awesome was that?!? -- and there was a scene between Jack Bauer and Assad, the former terrorist. Assad tells Jack that "visitors" is terrorist code for "nuclear weapons," to which Jack replies, "nucular weapons?"

Yes, folks, "nucular" weapons. It was enough to tear me away from the storyline, if only for a moment.

How is it that the guy playing Assad, Alexander Siddig, who's Sudanese, can pronounce "nuclear" correctly, but Kiefer, from the good ol' US of A, can't? So all you immigrant haters, step down! It sorta puts a little wrench in your ideology when a foreigner can speak English better than an American, doesn't it?

But I digress.

Anyways, it got me thinking about other words and phrases that are mispronounced or misused that drive me crazy. So, since I love lists so much, here's a list of my linguistic pet peeves:

Possessive vs. Plural: People, this is the bane of my existence. You don't buy "egg's"; you buy "eggs." You don't read "Sundays paper"; you read "Sunday's paper." And, although I get the logic behind using "It's" instead of "Its" in phrases such as "The cat took its sweet time," it's is incorrect. "It's" means "it is" -- that's it.

Aunt vs. Ant. I'm an aunt, not an ant. Although I may sometimes look like one, I am not, in fact, an insect.

Irregardless: There's no such word. It's just "regardless."

Conversating: Again, there's no such word. What you're doing is conversing.

Axe vs. Ask: Please don't axe me. I like life. Why not try asking me?

The Disappearing "R": It's February and library, not Febuary and libary.

You vs. I: Or should that be you vs. me? Argh. There used to be a time when people used "me" when they should have used "I." They were corrected, so they overcompensated and now use "I" instead of "me." It's not always "you and I." If Mark gives cookies to Laura and me, he's given cookies to Laura and he's given them to me. He hasn't given them to Laura and I; he can't give cookies to I. Don't fight it.

I'm sure there are other things I can't think of at this moment, but these are the big ones. I'm just trying to make this planet a little better, one word at a time.